Since taking over as coach at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in 2001, Rob Kurtz has transformed the Barons into an absolute girls soccer powerhouse.

Kurtz has led B-CC to back-to-back 4A state championships and four state titles in his 10 years as head coach. Under Kurtz, the Barons have failed to advance to the state championship game only four times.

And while B-CC replaced four starters from last year's 18-1 state championship team, including three that have gone on to play in college, Kurtz is expecting a similar outcome for this season's squad.

"Our goal is always to win a state championship," Kurtz said. "That's we train for and work for all year long. And that's what we're going to continue to push for."

This year's Barons (12-2) have won 10 straight games after starting the season 2-2, outscoring their opponents 43-6 during that span. They'll host Blair in the 4A West Region Semifinals tonight.

A third consecutive state title would make B-CC the first team in state history to win three straight state championships.

"I think we're just as good as we were last year or the year before," Barons senior forward Victoria Gersh said. "And hopefully we'll be able to finish that well again. All of the seniors, including myself, have put in a lot of hard work the last four years and really want to go out with another state championship."

Headlined by Gersh and Stanford-commit Alex Doll, B-CC has numerous weapons capable of putting the ball in the back of the net. Gersh (13 goals) and Doll (10) have led the way, but the Barons have also had six other players tally multiple goals, including Eliza Doll (6), Alex's younger sister.

"All over the field, people have fit into their roles," said Gersh, who's committed to Villanova. "We've gotten stronger and more confident during the season. We had to shift some positions around early, but we were able to deal with that pretty well and started scoring a lot more goals."

Kurtz has also been pleased with the Barons defense, spearheaded by goalie Angela White.

B-CC has posted seven shutouts and has allowed more than one goal just twice all year.

In Kurtz's mind, the defensive success has helped balance out one of the more complete teams he has coached at B-CC and a team he has seen progress tremendously during the course of the season.

"We've got great defense, a great goalkeeper and one of the best midfields we've ever had," Kurtz said. "And then our two forwards are going to give every team in the state problems. So all those pieces, plus about five or six talented subs, and I think we're really starting to come together. We were a little bit of a work in progress early, but we're playing our best right now."

But, with the success during the last decade, Gersh and the Barons are fully aware they will have a large target on their backs throughout the playoffs. Yet Gersh remains confident and optimistic that B-CC will find a way to make state history and come away with its third straight state title.

"There's a lot of pressure, but nothing that I don't think we can live up to," Gersh said. "As [Coach] Kurtz always says, there's always a bulls-eye on us and everyone always want to beat us. But we're already in the playoffs and I think we have a pretty good chance against Blair and any opponent we end up playing. We know that we can beat the best teams if we're playing well. We just need to play our game."

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